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A 50-year-old Menlo Park man convicted of multiple counts of felony child molestation didn’t show up for sentencing on Jan. 24, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
In November, Horacio Carlos Teran was found guilty of three counts of felony molestation, and acquitted of two counts, according to court records, after two previous trials ended in jury deadlock or mistrial.
Mr. Teran was arrested in 2010 after a 10-year-old neighbor alleged that the man had fondled him during games of tag in the defendant’s backyard, the district attorney’s office said.
His defense attorney told the court on Jan. 24 that Mr. Teran’s wife had reported him as a missing person. Judge Robert Foiles issued a warrant for his arrest.
Mr. Teran posted $300,000 bail on Nov. 27 and was released from custody after another judge denied the prosecutor’s request for “no bail” status.
The judge erred in denying the prosecutor’s request for “no bail” status. This pervert is probably long gone over the border. Good riddance!!!
This is fantastic. Now instead of spending hundreds of thousands to house this pervert, the county has just earned $300,000 in bail money.
Bears repeating:
What a disgrace all round, from the DA’s office mishandling of the case to the judge.
There were THREE- count em- THREE trials.
The first one ended in a mistrial because the prosecutor, Melissa Mckowan, failed to turn over witness testimony to the defense.
The second ended in a mistrial.
How it is that this guy Teran was able to skip out of town?
What a disgrace. This case was mishandled at every stage by everyone involved.
Think of how much money the County has already spent on this case.
In a review of the coverage of this case by the Almanac and other news sources, it appears that there is some odd behavior by the San Mateo DA in its handling of this case. Surely if they wanted to nail this guy the first time around, they could have. But THREE trials?
Also, the Almanac reported in November 2013 that there had been TWO trials, when in fact there had been three. The Almanac did correct their error.
The DA’s office was NOT forthcoming about the outcome of the first trial, which ended in a mistrial because prosecutor Melissa Mckowan didn’t turn over witness testimony from the defense. IT’S ALL IN THE COURT RECORDS. But Wagstaffe didn’t tell the media about this. All he said was that the prosecution “objected” to the defense asking for a mistrial.
Seems to us that that oversight of this case was very, very, very lax, all round. Monkey business?
From the Almanac in November 2013:
Molestation retrial ends in conviction for Menlo Park man
http://www.almanacnews.com/news/2013/11/21/molestation-retrial-ends-in-conviction-for-menlo-park-man
by Sandy Brundage / Almanac
Uploaded: Thu, Nov 21, 2013, 9:22 am
Editor’s Note: The original story initially stated there had been two trials on these charges; there have been three.
A retrial on multiple charges of child molestation ended with a conviction for a 50-year-old Menlo Park man on Wednesday (Nov. 20).
Horacio Carlos Teran was found guilty of three counts of felony molestation, and acquitted of two counts, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Mr. Teran was arrested in 2010 after a 10-year-old neighbor alleged that the man had fondled him during games of tag in the defendant’s backyard, the district attorney’s office said.
A 12-day trial held in March ended with a deadlocked jury. Eight jurors voted guilty, two not guilty and two were undecided.
Yet another trial in September 2012 ended with a mistrial when, after three days, the court granted the defense motion over prosecution objection, according to the district attorney’s office.
Whatever happened to the case of child molester Horacio Carlos Teran? Prosecutor on the case was Melissa Mckowan. Tehran failed to show up for sentencing more than 2 years ago. Where is he now?